Chicago, IL.
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The following report comes to us from Virtual School of Evangelization student Roberta in Chicago, IL:
I live in a nursing home and have been on lockdown since March, so I have to evangelize where I’m at and online. About 1.5 weeks ago, I posted a video on my Facebook page of spiritual commentary on the election made by a Catholic priest. Out of the blue, one person “liked” it and it happened to be my Protestant friend from 14 years ago. Later, as I was thinking about this week’s school of evangelization homework assignment, I reflected on who still needs to be evangelized. Suddenly, the Holy Spirit made me think of this Protestant friend! I wrote a short message to him on Facebook saying, “Have you ever considered becoming Catholic? I invite you to look into it! We would welcome you with open arms!” He responded very positively and told me that he’d been looking into Catholicism for the past few decades! He told me that thanks to all the Catholic material I’d shared on my Facebook page over the years, he had been introduced to several different aspects of Catholicism (Adoration, the Missal, genuflecting, etc.) and that because of me, he feels welcomed by the Catholic Church.
Next I said, “I’d like to invite you to take a closer look at it (Catholicism) since it is the church that Jesus Christ Himself founded. Maybe you have some questions or hesitations. Either way, I’m grateful for our friendship. Please feel free to ask me anything or share your thoughts with me if you’d like.” He responded with a long email with a list of topics he’d like to discuss. Some were Catholic topics like praying to our Guardian Angel, while other topics were just world issues that he’d like a Catholic opinion on, like the election. To continue discussing Catholic topics, we’ve committed to regularly emailing each other. I think it’s important right now to make him feel safe to explore deeper into the Catholic faith. He’s obviously curious and wants to learn more. I just emailed him two online resources that have really helped me grow in my Catholic faith this year. I told him that these resources might be able to help explain many of the things he is interested in about Catholicism. He replied and told me that he, in fact, already uses one of them to get answers on many of his questions! I am looking forward to having many more email conversations with him!
Praised be Jesus Christ!